America’s First Solar-Heated Commercial Building

The building, designed by the firm of Stanley* and Wright, was completed in August of 1956 for the offices of a local engineering firm, Bridgers and Paxton who contributed to the mechanical system that made it all work. In fact, it was Frank Bridgers and Don Paxton who conceived of the idea when they established their firm four years before in 1951. During most winter months, Albuquerque receives more solar radiation than any other location in the country. Ironically, January of 1956 was the cloudiest month in National Weather Service history.

The building’s unique design was featured in Life Magazine of December 17, 1956 and in Popular Mechanics in the November 1957 issue. Unfortunately, when the firm decided to double their building size in 1962, they installed a conventional boiler for heating as the low post-war fuel costs were less than the increased costs of building and maintaining a solar-heated building.

The system was taken completely out of service until the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973 when alternative energy sources became more cost effective. In 1974, the Federal Government funded renovations and improvements as a demonstration project seeking to increase the use of solar-assisted heating across the country.

Unfortunately, the building at 213 Truman Street SE now sits vacant, a victim of economics again. Now, the systems that were once original and innovative are 40 to 60 years old. The solar panels are covered in aluminum and just look like a metal roof.

*The architect, Francis Edgar Stanley, was the grand nephew of Freelan Oscar Stanley who, with his twin brother, designed one of the first steam-driven automobiles. One of those early automobiles was the first to come to Albuquerque owned by bicycle dealer, R. L. Dobson in 1910. F. O. Stanley was also responsible for creating the new method of manufacturing dry-plate photographic plates which they sold to a new start-up company, Kodak.